Since the issuance of U.S. Pat. No. 1,530,852 to Arthur H. Pitney, Mar. 24, 1925, the postage meter has had a steady evolution. Throughout the years, two general types of postage meters have been used: one that uses a rotary type printer, known as a rotary postage meter, and the other that uses a stationary print head and a reciprocating platen, known as a flat bed postage meter. Most recently, there has been a change from completely mechanical devices to meters that incorporate extensive use of electronic components. Although there have been a number of changes, there are certain elements that remain constant.
One of the constants has been that each meter had a printer included therein on a one-to-one basis, i.e. one metering device and one printing device incorporated into a unit. In postage meters, the need for security is absolute. Such security is applied in prior postage meters both to the printing portion of the meter and to the accounting portion. The reason for the need of absolute security is because a postage meter is printing value, and unless security measures are taken, one would be able to print unauthorized postage, i.e. postage for which no payment is made, thereby defrauding the U.S. Postal Service. Most security measures taken are of a physical nature, but recently there have been suggestions for the use of encryption to assure that a postage indicia is valid. Nevertheless, such encryption has merely supplemented the physical security systems that have been used and suggested by the prior art.
Although postage meters have performed satisfactorily in the past, and continue to perform satisfactorily, with the advancements in electronics and communications it is becoming apparent that ways of applying postage and accounting for the same can be achieved in systems that are less expensive to fabricate and more flexible in use while still providing the serviceability and security required.